Flip IT Cloud now running on Microsoft Azure!

Great news for cloud providers - we have extended our offer of deployments to Microsoft's Azure platform. Now you can become a white-label cloud provider without initial infrastructure costs anywhere Azure is available!

What are the basic differences between VDI and RDS?

Both are a way to deliver virtual a desktop experience from a data center as opposed to an on premise desktop.

VDI - Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

VDI is commonly used when referring to a user dedicated virtual desktop. Top technology vendors are VMware and Citrix. The end user gets a dedicated CPU, memory and disk space.

There is no impact on the other users residing on the same infrastructure. The resources can be added to the desktop when needed. Typical target users of VDI are enterprises. Especially those that have embraced virtualization and consolidation as cost reduction and security boosting mechanisms.

RDS - Remote Desktop Service

RDS is often called Microsoft Terminal Service or Shared Desktop. Each user inside the company gets its own profile and disk space but they all share the same virtual server resources. There is no dedicated virtual machine per user, rather they share the resources of one server.

Typically, 15 to 30 users are put on one server. With RDS, the infrastructure can be utilized to the full potential much more often than in VDI case. It brings another level of consolidation and price reduction.

Nevertheless, if you have one or two very demanding users on RDS they can utilize whatever resources (CPU, memory) are available and therefore impact others residing on the same server. If this turns out to be a problem in the long run, more demanding users should be moved to a dedicated (VDI like) server. While RDS can also be used in Enterprise environments it is more appropriate for smaller organizations with higher sensitivity to the IT costs.

Compare VDI to RDS deployment

When selling the cloud to your customers, consider the following table.

VDI

RDS

RDS on Azure

Typical users

Enterprise, Large

Large, SMB

Large, SMB

Specifics

Dedicated resources per user (VDI - Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)

Shared desktop or Terminal services (RDS – Remote Desktop Services)

RDS on Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure

Infrastructure

Dedicated or shared data center (initial investment)

Dedicated or shared data center (initial investment)

Public cloud data center (no initial investment)

Hypervisor

VMware

VMware or Microsoft

Microsoft

Desktop delivery

VMware view (PCoIP)

Microsoft RDP

Microsoft RDP

White-label portal

Yes

Yes

Yes

Application store

Yes

Yes

Yes

Voice included

Yes

Yes

Coming soon!

Where to go from here?

If you are a reseller or an end user, try the cheapest option first. That would be RDS from the cloud. That way you do not have any initial investment into your own data center, still, you can taste the user experience and cloud advantages.

Think about availability of computing and data access on any connected location, data protection, business continuity, ease of scaling (both up and down) – all the things that are complicated and expensive to achieve on your premise come natural from the cloud.

Want to know more?

Contact us for more information, technical specifications and meeting arrangements.